Peaceful Body Image through the Path of Yoga

Transcription

Peaceful Body Image through the Path of Yoga
Inspirations for the Journey
By Julie Norman
Copyright Julie Norman 2012
Please do not reproduce without prior written consent
Table of Contents
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION BIRTHRIGHT WARRIOR QUOTES SO HUM…I AM BREATH OF CHANGE QUOTES BODY TALK GRATITUDE QUOTES DO YOU LOVE YOUR BODY? Copyright Julie Norman 2012
2 3 4 5 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Please do not reproduce without prior written consent
Introduction
I offer you this collection to help illuminate your path to
body peace. Inside you’ll find writings, quotes, affirmations
and contemplations inspired by my personal and
professional experiences with healing body image. Also
included are words from others I use to support myself and
clients in understanding and healing the sacred relationship
with the body. I encourage you to create a quiet,
supportive space where you can connect fully to yourself
while exploring the following pages. Keep a journal close
by to acknowledge and express whatever arises as you
read. Meet every sensation with compassion and wonder.
May this gift support you on the path wherever you may be.
Walking with you, Julie
Birthright
“Despite illness of body or mind, in spite of blinding despair or
habitual belief, who you are is whole. Let nothing keep you
separate from the truth. The soul, illuminated from within, longs
to be known for what it is. Undying, untouched by fire or the
storms of life, there is a place inside where stillness and abiding
peace reside. You can ride the breath to go there. Despite doubt
or hopeless turns of mind, you are not broken. Spirit surrounds,
embraces, fills you from inside out. Release everything that isn’t
your true nature. What’s left, the fullness, the light, and shadow,
claim all that is your birthright.”
-Danna Faulds, Poems from the Path of Yoga
Warrior
The following is an excerpt from my personal journal written after a powerful experience I had
during a morning yoga practice.
Tears stream from my tired eyes. I am uncomfortable once again in this skin. Heavy and
lost, I’m disappointed. Why am I stuck here? I want to escape what’s inside but I stay. Despite
fear I hold still and try to soften. Life is a pose they say. A familiar, powerless ache consumes
my center. Habit longs to bring my unsettledness up to the mind. There thoughts may relieve
and distract. But in vein I resist my flesh. Heart whispers, “peace is here,” but I feel frozen.
Stuck in the cement of uncertainty, life force wanes as I fight what I feel.
So I will accept. I choose to simply be with the fear. To be with everything in me in
right now. Allowing breath to fill the strange sense of both fullness and emptiness in my core.
Suddenly, anxiety starts to leave. Like a sink of thick, dirty water slowly draining. The result?
Emptiness again, but of a drastically different sort. Now there is freedom…a vast inner
landscape ripe with possibility…new space to plunge into and thrive. My pose unfolds deeper
with newness and ease. My body energized and integrated from inside out. Life becomes
accessible from everywhere and everything. I think this is grace. Holding me up and grounding
me down. In between I am liberated.
My eyes fix on a vibrantly pink morning glory clinging to a fence in the distance. It’s
face reaching softly toward the sun and me all at once. Briefly it’s just us in the world then we
dissolve into All. Illusions fall away and truth speaks. I am Atman, divineness, I am. My
purpose for this body clear. This body is the perfect manifestation of my soul. This body the
vehicle of my dreams. Only when embodied can I evolve and be light. Denying flesh I fall and
feel dark.
I learn, the Soul’s purpose cannot be realized through the mind. The mind is too new, too
simple. Always worried, it shies away from Spirit. Ego manipulates thoughts with great ease.
The body though is married to the Soul. The body holds steadfast to the Divine. Coming back
to the body with acceptance, with compassion and love, is the key.
I will honor every “defect” of this body. They are battle scars from the war within. I
reclaim my True Self in this moment. Through body I can know this gift. I climb back into the
all of me NOW. Good-bye judgments and thin fantasies change. I will simply be. I will honor
what I feel as proof I am alive, that I am real. I will listen to the story of my body and in doing
so I will remain free.
I am a warrior
A warrior for peace
Peace within myself
Peace within all women
Peace within the world
I feel the fear...I walk with it back home to me...
and I am free
Quotes
“The body has so much to teach us. It is the first book of life. It
reveals the secrets of life. If you can tune into the body, you
won’t have to learn the laws of health, or harmony, or love, or
peace anywhere else. Your body will dictate it to you every time.”
-Yogi Amrit Desai
“Tension is who you think you should be, relaxation is who you
are.”
-Chinese Proverb
“The spiritual life is about becoming more at home in your own
skin.”
-Parker J. Palmer
So Hum…I AM
so hum...I AM
So hum is a fundamental yogic mantra. It simply means “I
am” or “I am that,” referring to ATMAN-spark of the divine.
What is the divine presence you originate from?
If you reconnected to this, your true identity, how might
you feel in your body then?
Practice saying this mantra aloud when alone, feel it’s truth
in your heart even if your mind resists. Just practice and
be.
Breath of Change
I am breathing through these changes
Or are they breathing me?
So much shifting underfoot
My world in flux
No choice but to breathe
If not I am consumed
Fear takes over, holds on
Immobilized my heart still longs
Funny how we ask for this
To broach a crazy precipice
In the mundane day to day
I am somehow called to change my way
I shall breathe deeper than before
I will answer my hearts call for more
Quotes
“Take a full pitcher of water and set it down in the water. Now it
has water inside and water outside. We mustn’t give it a name, lest
silly people start talking again about the body and soul.”
-Kabir
“We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are
spiritual beings having a human experience.”
-Teilhard de Chardin
“You don't have a soul. You are a Soul. You have a body.”
-C.S. Lewis
“Few of us have lost our minds, but most of us have long ago lost
our bodies.”
-Ken Wilbur
Body Talk
Oh body here we are once again, your struggles I feel in each cell
I stumble through life lost in mind, now feeling in flesh my mistakes
To ignore you, reject you we’re taught. No time to be present or real
But why should we be disconnected? My Self, the body, they are friends
They were matched by wisdom in the cosmos, and married in the Chapel of
the Earth
Devote commitment beyond measure, we must work through these
differences to thrive
It’s beautiful really our bind. We can both help the other to be free
An intriguing puzzle to solve, a riddle known so well by the heart
So I’m here with you now, please forgive me. Once more I’ve forgotten our
pact
I am present to heal with you now, learning together the dance
In quiet mind I feel your love, I know acceptance beyond compare
Let’s be still and return now together to that place of union as planned
Gratitude
I am grateful for all lessons, from both joy and pain
For opportunities to walk through fear and live this life full
For learning how to heal
For tears, laughter and despair
For more than I need
For less than I want
For life. This difficult, perfect life
Quotes
“We are all cells in the same body of humanity.“
-The Peace Pilgrim
“Don’t be afraid of your reflection, it’s not only you you’re
looking at now”
-Jack Johnson
“Don’t change the way you look, change the way you see.”
-Unknown
“If you loved your body you’d always feel at home.”
-Unknown
Do you love your body?
Why is this such a crazy concept ? I’m not referring
to movie screen love. I’m talking about true love with
all it’s ups and downs and daily doldrums. The kind
of love you hold for a child or dear friend or life
partner. Love that endures idiosyncrasies. Love
that transforms imperfections into celebrations of
diversity and uniqueness.
Love that is unconditional, life-giving, real.

Peaceful Body Image through the Path of Yoga

Transcription

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